Show Highlights

The songs and stories of prehistoric humans are gone. All that remains of their culture is their art. It's the one thing that can bridge the vast, silent chasm of time between then and now. IDEAS contributor Neil Sandell introduces us to the French archaeologist Jean Clottes, a man who’s devoted his lifetime trying to decipher the rich, enigmatic world of cave art.

As computers and artificial intelligence grow in power and capability, it seems ever more likely that we're approaching "the singularity": the point where machine intelligence exceeds human intelligence. Could this be the dawn of a technological paradise? Or it could trigger humanity’s doom? What kind of an intelligence will this be — benign or terrifying — a guru, a god or a monster? And is the idea of uploading the human mind the promise of immortality or just another dream of religious transcendence?

With so much wealth in the world, why is there so much poverty? Poverty slows the development of all societies, and it seems obvious that we should try to eradicate it, but it seems like an intractable problem. How can we put poverty behind us, and what does our attitude towards poverty and social mobility tell us about who we are? A discussion from the Stratford Festival.

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We think we know what money is. We use it every day and our lives are unimaginable without it. But look more closely and you find that coins and dollar bills aren't "real". They're promises, symbols, ideas. And exactly what money is has evolved enormously over the ages. IDEAS contributor Anik See explores how we're rethinking one of the most basic features of human society. More
Feb 25, 11:28 AM ET readcomments

Past Episodes

We think we know what money is. We use it every day and our lives are unimaginable without it. But look more closely and you find that coins and dollar bills aren't "real". They're promises, symbols, ideas. And exactly what money is has evolved enormously over the ages. IDEAS contributor Anik See explores how we're rethinking one of the most basic features of human society.

Canadian-born Frank Gehry has been called the greatest architect of our time. And yet he's still a rebel in his field. A complex and engaging man, who's been open about his disdain for the media, gave IDEAS producer Mary Lynk a rare chance to talk with him in California.

Gabrielle Scrimshaw delivers the third annual Vancouver Island University Indigenous Lecture on the challenges Indigenous youth face, what reconciliation looks like, and how people can engage on that journey.

Why does the colour of someone's skin seem to trigger prejudice? Why do Black people get carded by the police more often than white? Why does Black history seem marginalised in the story of our country? The Black Lives Matter movement demands serious answers from our society to all of these questions about race, culture and prejudice. Janaya Khan, d'bi. young and Sandra Hudson in a discussion from the Stratford Festival.

You might think that the heart symbol ❤ and romantic love have always been bedfellows. But you’d be wrong. At times, the symbol was just a decoration. At others, it meant spiritual, chaste love. At still others, romantic and carnal. Marilyn Yalom the author of "The Amorous Heart: An Unconventional History of Love". In it, she traces the astonishing, centuries-long journey of how the symbol took on all the meanings it has today.

Technological change has always provoked both utopian and dystopian visions of the future. Part 3 of Jill Eisen's series on the future of work looks at the promise of technology — how it can lead to a world that’s environmentally sustainable and one in which we have the time and the financial security to do what really matters to us.